BUTOH FESTIVAL - Icon in Construction

ICON IN CONSTRUCTION 

Origin. Transmutation. Materialisation. Regression. Rebirth. Decadence. Development. Cycle. Pulse. Revolution.

A dialogue between sound and image, between the moment just before now and the moment just after now.

Josephine Grundy: butoh dance, voice, costume design 

El Pepe Bolívar: electric guitar and effects  

ICON IN CONSTRUCTION is a tryptich that combines different performance languages (essentially butoh dance, sound, and visual art) to convey multiple perspectives or simultaneous narratives around the body and its journey through time and space. We catch glimpses of a woman, or the image of a woman, in different phases. Ghostly, timeless, historical, atemporal, iconic, deconstructed, pure matter in movement. A body, a voice, an instrument that goes beyond its own limitations and challenges the expectations they generate. There is no single pulse, no central tone, no formal register, we are in process, in constant vibration. A body of work that seeks to engage with and reflect on the present moment in history. Destruction and construction are ever-present themes in butoh dance and seem particularly pertinent in this moment of crisis. What is being destroyed? Which icons are being defaced? And what are we trying to build? On what foundations? During the confinement period I took the opportunity to experiment with less familiar media such as painting, sculpture and video/stop-motion, and I was fascinated to observe how my butoh practice came through in these forms and is informed by them as I continue to develop this work.

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JOSEPHINE GRUNDY (UK/France, 1975) is a multi-disciplinary artist and teacher based in Barcelona since 1996. Her academic training was initially in Human Sciences and in 1996 she received a Bsc. (2.1) from University College London, specialising in history and philosophy of science. In parallel with her humanistic studies she has always felt a great attraction towards the performing arts, studying music and dance since she was a child, and a keen interest in language, thanks to her bilingual upbringing. In Barcelona she studied the Jacques Lecoq theatre method and received a diploma from Estudis de Teatre Berty Tobías in 2003. She also trained with several physical theatre companies and directors, including Katalin Györffy, Susan Byrne, Teatro de los Sentidos, Théâtre du Mouvement, Cie Jeanne Simone and Carolina Pizarro (Odin Teatret). She performed as an actor in several theatre productions including The Little Shop of Horrors (Jocular Theatre) and The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (12×12 Company). Around this time she also began to perform in a wide range of international festivals with the street theatre companies Osadía and Dádivas, travelling all over Europe and to other parts of the world such as Japan, Australia, China, Hong, Kong, Macau, the USA and Canada. This was a great opportunity to travel and experience different cultures, which she feels has been very important in the development of her work, giving her a wider perspective. Josephine studied music and vocal technique (Loti Lewis, Estill Voice Craft), has sung and played guitar and piano in several music groups, including Monkey Rhythm, Pete Thompson and her own show of french Chanson music, and lends her voice to all kinds of professional recordings (commercial voice-overs, dubbing, audioguides, e-learning, soundtracks for dance and theatre, music recordings...) In the last 15 years she has been very involved in the practice of butoh dance, studying with masters from Japan and other parts of the world (including Rosana Barra, Atsushi Takenouchi, Tebby Ramisake, Imre Thormann, Minako Seki, Gyohei Zaitsu, Yoshito Ohno, Yumiko Yoshioka, and Seisaku) and has been investigating the relationship between voice and dance. She has performed with several butoh artists and companies, including Marlène Jöbstl, Cuerpo Transitorio and Hu Chia Dance Theatre, and she has presented her dance and voice pieces in a variety of international events, such as Alma Negra Festival (Madrid), Experimenta Menorca and several editions of Barcelona en Butoh Festival. She is currently developing her own work within the VoxDansa project, collaborates regularly with other artists and musicians, and shares her knowledge and experience in the form of butoh dance and voice workshops, regular classes and one-on-one coaching and mentoring.  

EL PEPE BOLÍVAR Born in Caracas, Venezuela (1989) as Luís Felipe Bolívar Fioretti, he always had a wide variety of cultural and musical influences, from the indigenous, orchestral, blues, jazz, soul, funk, rock, metal, fusion, ambient and music of films and video games. Since his training has been mainly self-taught since he was 15 years old, he also studied Guitar, Musical Language, Modern Harmony and Ensemble in the Caracas Jazz Taller (2010) by teachers such as Óscar Fanega, Luca Vincenzetti, Willy Díaz, Abelardo Bolaños and Roberto Martínez among others... He has dedicated himself to training in the area of ​​Musical Production and Teaching, as well as in the creation of audio-visual material to combine in an integral way in the aspects of his work. Currently based in Barcelona, ​​Spain (2015) he has sought to expand his performances in addition to conventional musical scenarios by collaborating with a series of artists from different disciplines, working as a composer, performer, producer and session musician. More recently he has been very interested in using his vocation more than in a social, ethical, political, responsible and humanistic artistic way.